I love the Swiffer Wet Jet. It makes it so incredibly easy to clean up any kind of mess on the floor – even my preschooler’s sticky grape juice spills! But what I don’t love is how expensive the refill solution is – it costs about $7 at my local superstore. Fortunately, I learned how to save money making my own Swiffer solution. In fact, I’ve got three tried and true recipes!

Recipe #1

1. Fill a bucket with 2 quarts of water.

2. Add 2 tablespoons of Murphy’s oil soap to the water and stir to combine.

3. Insert a funnel into an empty Swiffer Solution bottle and pour in your homemade solution. Or you can dip the Swiffer mop head directly into the solution and mop your floor as normal.

Recipe #2

1. Pour 4 cups of hot water into a bucket or pitcher.

2. Add 1 cup of lemon juice.

3. Measure out 3 cups of vinegar and add it to the bucket.

4. Drizzle in 1/4 cup of liquid dish soap.

5. Mix thoroughly and pour mixture into a recycled Swiffer container.

Recipe #3

1. Mix equal parts hot water and vinegar in a bucket (a cup or two of each will work.)

2. Dump in a splash of alcohol to keep anything gross from growing in the Swiffer refill container.

3. Add a couple of drops of an essential oil. I like to use lemon or orange scents because they also work as degreasers.

Tip:

It can be tricky to get the cap off the Swiffer refill bottle. But I discovered an easy way to do it!

1. Boil a few inches of water in a pot.

2. Turn off the heat and dip the end of the Swiffer bottle, lid-side down, into the water. Dunk it until the whole cap and just a little bit of the bottle are submerged.

3. Wait 20 to 30 seconds and then remove the bottle from the water.

4. Put a kitchen towel over the lid so you don’t scald yourself and twist the cap. It should come right off!

Homemade Swiffer Pads

You can also make your own Swiffer pads!

Just cut a microfiber cloth or bath towel into rectangles. Use the Swiffer mop head as a guide to gauge the correct size. Give it about 1 1/2 inches of overlap on the longer sides so you can tuck the ends of the cloth into the Swiffer mop cloth holder. I like to use microfiber towels from the dollar store. One towel makes four Swiffer cloths! After using the cloth, just throw it in the washing machine with your other rags.

26 thoughts on “3 Ways to Make Homemade Swiffer Solution”

Liz Smith

05/07/2015 at 8:01 am

I was trying to remove the cap according to the instructions in the “tip” above, but it wasn’t coming off. I dunked it in the water several times more, and finally it gave just a little. One daughter said, “oh, yeah, that’s how they tease you, but it won’t come off any more.” Then my other daughter said, “Mom, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.” I smiled, dunked it one final time, and finally the cap came off very easily. 😉

Samantha

04/28/2015 at 12:19 pm

In regards to the vinegar smell– I added cypress oil to the vinegar/water/alcohol solution and it complements the vinegar smell really well! Can’t smell it at all. I imagine any type of pine oil would work the same.

Gailk

Gail

07/15/2014 at 9:41 am

Someone suggested cutting a hole in the bottom of the bottle so you don’t even have to remove it and filling the bottle with a funnel. Don’t try it! Once the bottle has a hole, the solution drips out way too fast and makes a mess!

Doris

07/08/2014 at 1:58 pm

i! took the swifter bottle off and cut a hole in the bottom and then used a funnel to put in the solution. I dont even have to take the bottle off except when I first did to take a knife to cut a hole in it. Sometimes I put vimdgar and water in it and on very dirty spots I spray a little cleaner on it.

Anonymous

05/25/2014 at 2:48 pm

I make my own orange vinegar by dropping orange peels directly into a large container of vinegar. I let them soak for a couple weeks, then dilute with water. Smells great. Also enhances the cleaning ability.

Deborah Dolen

02/09/2014 at 6:01 pm

Your awesome! I think those swiffer pads look so much like a big Kotex I may slap that on the end. Bet they absorb a river and are BOGO far more often than Swiffer pads (which is never.) Swiffer actually cleans my wood floors which perplexes me but great.

Ashley Baer

01/29/2014 at 3:38 pm

I’ve been using the vinegar/water solution for a little over a year now and LOVE it. So much cheaper and I feel good that my kids aren’t rolling around in a bunch of chemicals. AND I love that I can use it on the all of the floors in my home. We have tile in the dining room and kitchen and laminate in the living room. It dries fast on all of the floors, the vinegar smells goes away after it dries, and doesn’t streak. I have found that after refilling and filling the bottle it will need to be replaced because the threads in the lid start to strip.

Anonymous

01/29/2014 at 9:38 am

I’ve been using the vinegar/water solution for a little over a year now and LOVE it. So much cheaper and I feel good that my kids aren’t rolling around in a bunch of chemicals. AND I love that I can use it on the all of the floors in my home. We have tile in the dining room and kitchen and laminate in the living room. It dries fast on all of the floors, the vinegar smells goes away after it dries, and doesn’t streak. I have found that after refilling and filling the bottle it will need to be replaced because the threads in the lid start to strip.

Anonymous

01/20/2014 at 4:22 pm

To be quite frank, the vinegar solution smells horrible even with a fragrance added. The solution is slippery and not like the OEM solution. It takes quite a while to dry and because of this can get dirty again as a result of the wet floors. I tried adding about 2 parts alcohol (70% IPA) and that helped but not like the real deal and it had the unfortunate side effect of bringing out the vinegar smell even more

Donna Criswell Mollaun

Cathy L. Ward

04/04/2013 at 8:29 am

what I have been doing since swiffer’s came out was I use the rubber stopper from a piggy bank , cut hole in bottom of bottle, pour in my cleaner, put stopper in, bottom of bottle is what sticks up facing you when you insert it into swiffer…has worked for me for years…I bought two bottles when I first bought my vacuum swiffer, and have never bought another bottle since…

Michelle

Sue

04/03/2013 at 12:10 pm

I used to use the wet jet but after the handle cracked on my last one, I decided to get Rubbermaid’s version. I just wash the reusable pad & use a vinegar/water solution to clean my floors. & I think it does a better job than my Swiffer used to do.

Beryl

04/04/2013 at 8:10 am

I, too, used to use Swiffer, but bought the Rubbermaid last time. It came with two reusuable bottles that you put your own solution in, and with three washable refills. I also agree that it cleans better. I was surprised as I was a diehard Swiffer fan!

Anonymous

Anonymous

04/03/2013 at 10:20 am

this is awesome, thank you so much for the tips, we just got a swiffer wet jet from someone and have had to buy the refill pads and cleaning mix, we bought the generic kind from walmart, but I was trying to think the other day how I could make it last longer or somehow cheaper. this is perfect. thanks again.